Post by bluehaze on Nov 30, 2007 8:03:48 GMT -5
N.C. A&T reassigns athletics director
By Rob Daniels
Staff Writer
Friday, Nov. 30, 2007 3:00 am
GREENSBORO -- Athletics director Dee Todd said she wasn't alarmed when she was summoned to the fourth floor of the general administration building at N.C. A&T on Thursday morning. Twelve days had passed since the end of the Aggie football program's second straight winless season and Todd's public endorsement of coach Lee Fobbs and his staff.
As recently as Nov. 19, she characterized the school's leaders as "supportive" of her efforts to manage a financially challenged department. So when Chancellor Stanley F. Battle informed Todd that he had reassigned her to an unspecified job in the university's School of Education, the 27-year veteran of college athletics administration was left with several questions, not the least of which was whether patience had cost her.
"Am I the scapegoat for football? You have to wonder," Todd said 90 minutes after the meeting. "I stand by my statement: Lee Fobbs is a great man, and people need to give him a chance."
Sources close to the program indicated no changes in coaching are imminent. Fobbs referred all comment to Mable Scott, A&T's associate vice chancellor for university relations. Scott did not respond to additional questions from the News & Record.
Todd came to A&T from an administrative position with the ACC in the summer of 2005. She was hired by James C. Renick, the school's chancellor at the time. Renick left after the 2005-06 academic year, and Todd has become the third AD to be removed from the post in this decade at A&T.
Wheeler Brown, a longtime associate AD, will be the third interim appointee and the sixth person overall to run the department in that time.
Todd said Battle, who took over as chancellor July 1, did not offer a specific reason for her reassignment during Thursday's meeting. University officials said they will initiate a national search, but Todd was skeptical about the search's outcome.
"If you keep changing your contractor when you're building a house, you're never going to get it built," she said. "If you keep changing, what quality person is going to come to A&T as athletics director?
"How many people would have left a job at the ACC, where I was very comfortable, where I had been for 17 years, where they didn't ask me to leave? I left to help. I left to build. If you can (treat) someone this way, who else is going to come?"
The change in job status apparently will come with an 11 percent pay cut. Todd said she may investigate whether her contract, a five-year agreement signed in 2005, allows the university to follow through on plans to reduce her annual salary from $135,106 to the $120,000 she made in the first fiscal year.
Battle's only comment on Todd's reassignment came in a four-paragraph statement released by the university:
"This decision was made in the best interests of the athletics program. The university expresses our appreciation for Ms. Todd's services and contributions during her tenure as athletics director."
Only last week, Battle offered a vague missive that began, "We have experienced a very difficult football season this year. The review of all athletics programs is well under way. There is considerable room for improvement in all athletics at A&T."
But in his next sentence, Battle said, "I fully support our football program."
Battle came to A&T from Coppin State University, which does not field a football team.
Todd apparently raised the chancellor's ire in September. Moments after the Aggies lost to longtime rival N.C. Central, a few Eagles players stomped on the logo on A&T's field in a derisive manner. Players from both teams scuffled briefly and the News & Observer of Raleigh cited Todd as the source of a comment that the schools' football series would be canceled. Todd denied saying that, but when Battle and Central Chancellor Charlie Nelms conducted an apologetic, joint news conference on the A&T campus a few days later, the Aggies' athletics director did not attend. She said representatives of the athletics department were not invited.
The schools have not said if they will play in Durham as scheduled in 2008.
Todd fired football coach George Small, an A&T alumnus who succeeded Bill Hayes, after the 2005 season. Small directed the Aggies to a MEAC championship in his first year, 2003, but was dismissed after losing campaigns in 2004 and '05.
Since that move, Todd has refrained from major changes. She has said player attrition following Small's departure was debilitating.
The Aggies, while still winless, went from being totally outclassed in 2006 to competitive in 2007. They were in position to win five of 11 games in the fourth quarter.
Todd gave men's basketball coach Jerry Eaves a new contract toward the end of 2006-07, in which the Aggies went 15-17. Their 10-8 MEAC record was their best in five years. In 2004, Eaves took over a team that was 1-26 the previous season.
Todd said A&T's overall athletics budget is the smallest of the nine football-playing institutions in the MEAC. Ascertaining the accuracy of that statement is difficult because private schools don't have to open their books to that degree of scrutiny and the most recent records available to the public are from the 2005-06 academic year. But according to those figures, provided by the U.S. Department of Education, A&T athletics as a whole spent $80,221 on recruiting that year -- about 50 percent less than the $125,400 spent, on average, by the other eight football-playing schools in the MEAC.
Todd's new job, if she chooses to accept it, will start Jan. 14.
"At the moment, I don't have any choice," she said. "I didn't even see it coming, so I don't know."
By Rob Daniels
Staff Writer
Friday, Nov. 30, 2007 3:00 am
GREENSBORO -- Athletics director Dee Todd said she wasn't alarmed when she was summoned to the fourth floor of the general administration building at N.C. A&T on Thursday morning. Twelve days had passed since the end of the Aggie football program's second straight winless season and Todd's public endorsement of coach Lee Fobbs and his staff.
As recently as Nov. 19, she characterized the school's leaders as "supportive" of her efforts to manage a financially challenged department. So when Chancellor Stanley F. Battle informed Todd that he had reassigned her to an unspecified job in the university's School of Education, the 27-year veteran of college athletics administration was left with several questions, not the least of which was whether patience had cost her.
"Am I the scapegoat for football? You have to wonder," Todd said 90 minutes after the meeting. "I stand by my statement: Lee Fobbs is a great man, and people need to give him a chance."
Sources close to the program indicated no changes in coaching are imminent. Fobbs referred all comment to Mable Scott, A&T's associate vice chancellor for university relations. Scott did not respond to additional questions from the News & Record.
Todd came to A&T from an administrative position with the ACC in the summer of 2005. She was hired by James C. Renick, the school's chancellor at the time. Renick left after the 2005-06 academic year, and Todd has become the third AD to be removed from the post in this decade at A&T.
Wheeler Brown, a longtime associate AD, will be the third interim appointee and the sixth person overall to run the department in that time.
Todd said Battle, who took over as chancellor July 1, did not offer a specific reason for her reassignment during Thursday's meeting. University officials said they will initiate a national search, but Todd was skeptical about the search's outcome.
"If you keep changing your contractor when you're building a house, you're never going to get it built," she said. "If you keep changing, what quality person is going to come to A&T as athletics director?
"How many people would have left a job at the ACC, where I was very comfortable, where I had been for 17 years, where they didn't ask me to leave? I left to help. I left to build. If you can (treat) someone this way, who else is going to come?"
The change in job status apparently will come with an 11 percent pay cut. Todd said she may investigate whether her contract, a five-year agreement signed in 2005, allows the university to follow through on plans to reduce her annual salary from $135,106 to the $120,000 she made in the first fiscal year.
Battle's only comment on Todd's reassignment came in a four-paragraph statement released by the university:
"This decision was made in the best interests of the athletics program. The university expresses our appreciation for Ms. Todd's services and contributions during her tenure as athletics director."
Only last week, Battle offered a vague missive that began, "We have experienced a very difficult football season this year. The review of all athletics programs is well under way. There is considerable room for improvement in all athletics at A&T."
But in his next sentence, Battle said, "I fully support our football program."
Battle came to A&T from Coppin State University, which does not field a football team.
Todd apparently raised the chancellor's ire in September. Moments after the Aggies lost to longtime rival N.C. Central, a few Eagles players stomped on the logo on A&T's field in a derisive manner. Players from both teams scuffled briefly and the News & Observer of Raleigh cited Todd as the source of a comment that the schools' football series would be canceled. Todd denied saying that, but when Battle and Central Chancellor Charlie Nelms conducted an apologetic, joint news conference on the A&T campus a few days later, the Aggies' athletics director did not attend. She said representatives of the athletics department were not invited.
The schools have not said if they will play in Durham as scheduled in 2008.
Todd fired football coach George Small, an A&T alumnus who succeeded Bill Hayes, after the 2005 season. Small directed the Aggies to a MEAC championship in his first year, 2003, but was dismissed after losing campaigns in 2004 and '05.
Since that move, Todd has refrained from major changes. She has said player attrition following Small's departure was debilitating.
The Aggies, while still winless, went from being totally outclassed in 2006 to competitive in 2007. They were in position to win five of 11 games in the fourth quarter.
Todd gave men's basketball coach Jerry Eaves a new contract toward the end of 2006-07, in which the Aggies went 15-17. Their 10-8 MEAC record was their best in five years. In 2004, Eaves took over a team that was 1-26 the previous season.
Todd said A&T's overall athletics budget is the smallest of the nine football-playing institutions in the MEAC. Ascertaining the accuracy of that statement is difficult because private schools don't have to open their books to that degree of scrutiny and the most recent records available to the public are from the 2005-06 academic year. But according to those figures, provided by the U.S. Department of Education, A&T athletics as a whole spent $80,221 on recruiting that year -- about 50 percent less than the $125,400 spent, on average, by the other eight football-playing schools in the MEAC.
Todd's new job, if she chooses to accept it, will start Jan. 14.
"At the moment, I don't have any choice," she said. "I didn't even see it coming, so I don't know."
